Young women who write: Little Women (2019, USA)

Little Women (2019) , written and directed by Greta Gerwig, was released to critical acclaim and to great commercial success (grossing US$220 million from a budget of US$40 million). It received six nominations for Oscars and created debate about whether Gerwig should have been nominated in the Best Director category, something many felt she deserved. This film is a sum of apparently opposite qualities, both very classical in respecting the values and characters of the original novel and extremely innovative in many ways. It employs the strategy of putting the classical ending into a narrative frame that questions the role of women in nineteenth-century society. Yet it also questions the relations between art and money, creativity and the control of producers. The film is also both universal and very intimate: Gerwig says Alcott’s novel was a great inspiration when she was a teenager, fuelling her desire to be a writer. Gerwig deeply identified with both the character of Jo and with the life of Louisa May Alcott, who struggled against many difficulties to confirm herself as a respected author. This is one of the few projects in mainstream Hollywood cinema that has been written, directed and produced by women: Amy Pascal, Denise Di Novi and Robin Swicord. It is known for having a very strong cast of women, from Saoirse Ronan to Emma Watson, from Meryl Streep to Laura Dern. This chapter covers three main points: the meaning of this story to Greta Gerwig and how it is connected to her own life; the novelty and effectiveness of narrative choices made in the adaptation; and some aspects of the direction (of actors, the staging, etc.) that have affected the film’s impact.

Keywords: adaptation ; Little Women ; Louisa May Alcott ; women in Hollywood ; women’s film